[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 16]
[House]
[Pages 21523-21524]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




     THE URGENCY OF PREVENTING IRAN FROM ACQUIRING NUCLEAR WEAPONS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, last week we commemorated a sad 
anniversary of the September 11th attacks on our Nation. On that 
fateful day 8 years ago, we realized that protecting our homeland and 
defeating our enemies would require innovative approaches and an 
unconventional view of the threats that we face. However, when looking 
at the Iranian nuclear threat, it would appear that some have forgotten 
the lessons of 9/11.
  Many believe that because Iran has not yet mastered all of the 
elements needed for an operational nuclear weapon, we have the luxury 
of time. Mr. Speaker, that is not so. Iran has already produced 1,400 
kilograms of low-enriched uranium, which can easily be used for a 
``dirty nuke.''
  As former President Clinton noted in the year 2005, if you have 
basically a cookie's worth of fissile material and you put it into a 
traditional bomb, you can amplify the destruction power by hundreds-
fold or more.
  So the nuclear threat from Iran already exists in a radiological 
form. Yet, the U.S. and the U.N. Security Council have actually lowered 
the requirements imposed on the Iranian regime with respect to its 
nuclear activities. The initial U.S. position with respect to Iran's 
nuclear program was to demand its complete, verifiable, irreversible 
dismantlement. Then it went down to a mere temporary suspension of 
uranium enrichment. And now, reportedly, only a commitment from the 
Iranian regime that they will not use growing supplies of enriched 
uranium to make nuclear weapons.
  This, as a U.S. government official was quoted as saying just last 
week, ``Iran is now either very near or in possession already of 
sufficient low-enriched uranium to produce one nuclear weapon'' and is 
closer ``to a dangerous and destabilizing possible breakout capacity.'' 
And this means a breakout capacity for producing not a dirty nuke but a 
conventional nuclear weapon.
  Iran is pouring enormous resources into its nuclear program. Its 
missiles can already strike U.S. forces, can strike Israel and our 
allies in the Middle East and Europe, and it is only a matter of time 
until it has the capability to hit us here at home.
  Inexcusably, one administration after another has not fully 
implemented the range of sanctions that are called for in current U.S. 
law, nor have we leveraged our resources to secure cooperation from our 
allies, particularly those on the U.N. Security Council. And this year 
we have filed another bill for another range of sanctions on Iran, and 
we have yet to get that bill out of committee, in spite of over 300 
sponsors for that bill.
  Next week at the United Nations in New York, for the first time a 
President of the United States will chair a meeting of the U.N. 
Security Council. The Council will be holding a special summit on the 
general issue of nuclear nonproliferation, but will ignore the actions 
of specific countries such as Iran.
  The U.S. will also not use its presidency on the Security Council 
this month to pursue further sanctions targeting the Iranian regime. In 
fact, rather than using our platform at the U.N. to urge immediate 
action against the regime, the U.S. has again succumbed to Iranian 
manipulation.
  Joined by France, Germany, Britain, Russia, and China, we will meet 
with the regime in Brussels on October 1 to resolve the disputes over 
Tehran's nuclear program.
  Let's get this straight. As the threat posed by the Iranian regime 
increases, as the Iranian regime inches closer to weaponizing its 
nuclear program, the response from the so-called international 
community is to schedule more talks--legitimizing the regime by 
engaging them directly.
  By its own statements, the regime is committed to the destruction of 
Israel and the U.S. as well. Ahmadinejad has repeatedly denied the 
existence of the Holocaust, called for Israel be wiped off the map, 
spoken of achieving ``a world without America and Zionism.''

                              {time}  1945

  Iran is also the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism, assisted 
the attacks on our soldiers and continues to this day in Iraq and 
Afghanistan, and poses a growing threat to the Persian Gulf, a major 
source of the world's oil. This threat is becoming global, as Tehran 
expands its presence and influence throughout the Middle East and South 
and Central Asia and right here

[[Page 21524]]

 in Latin America as well as Africa. But right here in our own 
hemisphere, one need look no further than the 1994 bombing of the 
Jewish community center in Argentina, Buenos Aires, to demonstrate 
Iran's willingness and ability to attack targets half a world away.
  In July, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for even stricter 
sanctions on Iran to try to change the behavior of the regime. I 
couldn't agree more, but we need them now. Let's act now.

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